, republican and democrat, sit across the table the way they did with bill clinton, the way they did with ronald reagan, and the way you get things done in washington, rather than saying hey, would you stick with grover norquist or would you not or would you address entitlements or not. i believe it's vital that we address the entitlements, who are the elephant in the room, but that would be up to the people who would be sitting across the table from each other. we cannot go over this fiscal cliff, no matter what people on both ends of the political spectrum say. i believe that there was a popularity poll in case you missed it where now members of congress rank just above car salespeople and i'm a great admirer of car salespeople, you know. it's not -- even astonishingly and it angers me beyond belief, even journalists rank higher than members of congress. >> former senate majority leader george mitchell knows what it's like to be in the middle of the debate. he joins me now. senator mitchell, you more or less have been in john boehner's shoes. you were a congressional leader hammering ou

clinton noted chris's swearing in as ambassador to libya on an earlier tour, he was visiting roman ruins at one of the tourist sites in libya. he was trailed by gadhafi security men who were obviously intimidating to other tourists. as she recounted it, he reached over to one of the men, stole his camera out of his hands and started taking pictures of the men who had been following him. they were so dumbfounded that they had to laugh. after a quick conversation, chris convinced them to stand down. from a colleague at the embassy in tripoli i learned chris had a humble style of diplomacy libyans responded to after he became ambassador and returned to tripoli, the embassy posted a photo, ordering a juice in a cafe. that went viral because libyans were amazed at the site of a senior government official doing mundane activities without a huge entourage and demanding vip treatment. chris had a great knowledge of libyan history and culture. he would often crack jokes with government counter parts. not just in arabic but in the libyan dialect, which the libyans loved to hear him speak. an

were reminded what they liked about the president. of course president clinton did a good job. and the right track wrong track, he was right track of the country wrong track of the country among the electorates that actually voted was about 20 plus points closer than it was at the beginning of the race. so every campaign has to have a theory, and a rationale. and one of the key rationales of this campaign was worst economic crises since the depression, he inherited it but what has he done for it. when you look at the exit polls on those that cared about the economy the most, governor romney won. there just wasn't enough to win the election. >> rose: did you have the right theory of the case, though, in terms of what the impact of all of the mosaic of american politics that make up the electorate. >> well, we talked about other issues. i mean he talked a lot about entitlement reform. big ideas. that was what he wanted to talk about. that's why he ran. and i hope that people will continue to be part of the conversation, how many big ideas he put out there with a really fair degree of spe

la. we are told that maybe we will go back to the clinton era taxes. now obama says it would be less than that, and that was at 39%. it is not even in the same ballpark. what did you not like about the clinton era, the pace or the prosperity and i look like a human anvil. >> so you want to go back to the clinton -- >> what was wrong with that? >> i would say let's go to the clinton era of spending. the last clinton budget was $1.7 or $3.8 trillion. i am not that good at math, but that is almost double. how do you like them apples, bill some. >> who took those apples and made us heavily in debt? >> ending big government as we know it, that's not going to happen under obama. he will get the taxes and go right on spending, bill. >> i don't know. he said he wouldn't. >> let's not gang up on bill. she turned christmas cheer into a cruel jeer. a louisiana woman rigged her lights to look like a middle finger. apparently a mess seeming to her neighbors over some dispute. probably a recipe or something. cops told sara henderson that the display was involved in obscenity laws. but then she did

. in january, he began to make his appointments and i began to see the same faces of the clinton administration. i became increasingly frustrated. obamacare is what hit me over the edge. i said, why is this president not focusing on job creation? people do not want universal health care right now. >> when did you become a conservative? >> i do not really know if it was a light bulb going off in my head. i know the way i was raised as a kid by my parents was always, you grow up in life, you take responsibility for your actions, and you do not depend on somebody to do something for you. we would sit around and have dinner as a family together. my parents did not talk was about politics but they talked a lot about values and keeping your promises to people. i became a conservative when i moved to washington in 1995. i started working in television news. going out and sat in on hearings. i was walking up and down and seeing all these government buildings and thought, what do these people do all day? i felt the more i engaged in government, the more conservative by became. i felt gove

was around when clinton -- remember that economy? okay. he said i wish president obama and the democrats would explain to the nation the federal budget deficit isn't the major problem and deficit reduction shouldn't be the major goal. problem is lack of good jobs and the goal must to be revive both. deficit reduction leads us away from jobs and growth. the reason the fiscal cliff is dangerous is because it's too much deficit reduction too quickly that would suck demand out of the economy. more jobs and growth will help the deficit. recall the '90s when the clinton administration balanced the budget because of faster job growth than anybody expected bringing in more tax revenues than anyone had forecast. europe offers the same lesson in reverse. thank you. as jim says, every time we talk about this, they keep taking the wrong -- lindsey graham said we're going to be greece. yeah, if we do what you want! the best way to generate jobs and growth is for the government to spend more, not less. and for taxes to stay lor owe become lower on the middle class. so you know, just -- >> ro

meddling koch brothers are sure to pop up. and from cory booker to ted cruz to hillary clinton it seems the most interesting head figures these days are drank the kool-aid. and we'll give you a few gift ideas to help bury the hatchet. ♪ >>> it's not just governor snyder and michigan republicans that unions are battling you'll never guess who is funding their efforts. that's right think kochtopus. they do make some positive contributions to society, however. for more on the story is daniel fisher. welcome inside "the war room." >> hi. >> you know, dan, we're glad you are here. we have a real image of who these people are. it is sort of like a boo radley thing. but what was the one take away from meeting with the koch brothers that changed you? >> i got to admit i didn't have much of different idea going in because they have always been pretty up front about their politics. so it was a mystery to me actually the perception of them. because i think i get what makes them tick. >> you know their politics. they support ending the war on drugs, support gay marriage and these things are reall

smiling with pictures of president obama and former president clinton, but he wanted nothing to do with our camera. >> we're trying to track down those who owe the state and you happen to be no. 203 on the state, on the ground the state $280 he,000. >> i pay my fair share. i pay all of my taxes as i can. and so that is all i have got to say. >> reporter: the san francisco attorney told us in a letter today that he is working with the franchise tax board to pay his bill. he is just one in a long list of californians on the hook for back taxes. we reviewed the top 500 tax beats and found respected professionals including other lawyers, doctors and nurses and hollywood celebrity and the top of the list is san francisco tech pierre halsey pioneer halsey minor. we confronted another tax evader. and your husband owe more than $500,000 to the state? >> no, we don't. >> reporter: the franchise tax board also says the couple living in this 2.5-acre gated estes is clinton is way behind on its taxes. >> you are no. 229. no. 229. then there is dr. de leon, jr. of walnut creek, no. 1 on the lis

was not. i think it is outrageous. every incumbent, clinton, reagan, bush, clinton had a record to run on, but they grilled him. >> let's go back to the meeting. you bring up some other things in this clip. [video clip] >> in 1960, we had 36% of black males incarcerated. i was rereading the report written for president johnson about the state of black americans in 1964. then i thought about today where we have 65% of blacks in prison. i look back at the report and i saw at the time, it said the biggest thing he saw affecting black americans was the breakdown of the black family. >> two issues. 65% of black americans are in prison today? >> it is quite an enormous amount. i think it is about 55%. i do not have the -- >> why? i have heard people say the reason is because of the laws that are written against the black folks, and the drugs, crack cocaine verses the powder. >> shelby steele, a great professor at stanford and a great published author, writes a lot about this. he comes to mind. this was written when the trayvon martin shooting happened. it is not the sentencing guidelines

pictures at his office with president obama and former president clinton, but he wanted nothing to do with our cameras. we're trying to track down those who owe the state and you happen to be no. 203 on list on the ground the state $203,000. >> he is also a former san francisco ethics commissioner once taxed with keeping politicians honest and now he is facing his own ethical tax dilemma. is it fair that folks like you don't pay their fair share (i pay my fair share. i pay all of my taxes as i can. and so that is how all i have to say. >> reporter: the foreman attorney told us in a letter today that he is "working with the franchise tax board to pay his bill. mccoy is just one in a long list of californians on the hook for baxtaxes. we reviewed the top 500 tax deadbeats and found professional, including doctors, lawyers and nurses hollywood celebrities including dionne warwick and topping the list with a $10 million tax bill is founder of san francisco-based cnet, tech pioneer halsey minor. we couldn't find him, but on main street in hayward. is there a reason you are not paying your

think she would be much more of an interventionist than hillary clinton is pillar clinton adulate at low. susan rice would be more of a humanitarian interventionists. >> we know that the talking points given by the intelligence community were altered, and we still don't know who offered them and why. -- who atlered them and why. maybe the administration allowed them to continue to sit at al qaeda is still on its heels and everything he said in charlotte. how do you get to that story when we know that the intelligence community said something else? it was changed pretty who did it? that is the scandal. >> who lost china? >> the u.n. votes for palestine as a non-voting observer state. >> progress cannot be made by pressing agree voting button in this hall, nor does passing any resolution to create a state where none exists or change the reality on the ground. >> speaking of susan rice, there she is, the u.n. ambassador to the general assembly voted on thursday by a large amount and to upgrade palestine from its status as an observer entity to an observer state. the united states opp

. and patrick murphy will enter the war room. and then how about that, clinton for mayor. win tower for ambassador? we'll separate the pipe dreams from the possible. it's "the war room" on tuesday night. we're justststststststststststststststststststststststststst you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? at cepacol we've heard people are going to extremes to relieve their sore throats. oh, okay, you don't need to do that. but i don't want any more of the usual lozenges and i want new cooling relief! ugh. how do you feel? now i'm cold. hmm. this is a better choice. new cepacol sensations cools instantly, and has an active ingredient that stays with you long aft

earners to where they were in the clinton administration, 39.6%. they would also like to raise $1.6 trillion with new taxes over the next decade, while cutting about $400 billion through entitlement reform. although, those cuts are not specific and not guaranteed. but the treasury secretary says the administration's plan is fiscally responsible and would prevent taxes from going up on 98% of americans. >> we think that is a very good set of proposals. we think it's good for the economy. if they have different suggestions they want to go further in some areas, then they should lay odds with us. >> reporter: secretary geithner said he cannot promise we will not go over the fiscal cliff and whether or not we go over it depends -- is a decision, rather, that lay in the hands of republicans that don't want to increase tax rates. speaker boehner said there is a chance we go over the cliff, but he doesn't want any part of that and he will do everything he can to avert that. eric, jamie? >> eric: peter, negotiations if and when they commence and continue, we'll see what happens. thank you,

the problem to raise taxes across the board to go back to what bill clinton had in his taxes. if we don't do that, the problem is pressure is on spending even more. i think we need to make the defense cuts. we want to minimize human services cuts. the best way to do that is go back to clinton era taxes. i actually have mixed feelings about striking a deal where the rich folks pay more taxes. i think they should pay more taxes, but i actually think going off clithe cliff is a bet solution than just charging people who make a lot of money what they were paying when bill clinton was president. >> the clinton tax rates worked well, and when you look at where we really are today, although the democrats are playing really tough on these top tax rates, they have conceded about 75% of the tax debate to republicans by agreeing with them on all of the otherç rates. >> that is true, aalthough there is a matter of timing. you know, i think part of what you have to look at here is it's really hrepublicans who force this conversation about having deficit reduction right now. we shouldn't have d

in the room it is it hillary clinton. >> yes. >> everybody is on hold until they find out what she will do. i heard other potential democrat candidates are having trouble to find consultants until they find out what she will do. >> i think that is right. first the nomination is hillary clinton's if she wants it she's going to take a year or two deciding, my best guest given that she ran in 08 and came so close and wanted to be president that she will in fact do it and if she does, i think she will get the democraticic nomination and be a formidable candidate. >> what about on the other side if you are a republican thinking about running. does anybody stand out in the pack of the usual suspects. we can talk about a few of them. marko rubio and there is it chris christy might be one. in jeb bush. >> in fact there is it a deep bench i think on the republican side. there is it a lot of the people who would be possibly . who will want to come forward. it might be and it is possible 2016 will be a fracous on the republican side and a stately walking toward the coronation on the democrati

summarized the testimony that the bill clinton chief of staff last year gave about what he thought might kind of be a workable budget deal way back then. because bowles is a democrat, the republicans thought they he could try to pretend that agreeing with a single democrat means that they are actually willing to compromise big time even though erskine bowles is a very easy democrat to negotiate with, unlike the actual elected democrats in washington. in other words, erskine bowles is willing to compromise on things or was willing to compromise on things that the democrats are not willing to co comp pro mice on. which means that it's utterly meaningless on your way to try to get a deal with the president of the united states. erskine bowles' proposal included a $600 billion cut in medicare spending which he achieved by raising the medicare eligibility age. so republicans just proposed raising the eligibility age for medicare, a proposal that polls show is supported by a full 30% of the american people and rejected by only 67% of them. white house communications director dan fi officer rej

of hillary clinton flew to dublin to hold a meeting with her russian counter part and u.n. enjoy to syria meeting to discuss how they would end the now 21-month long conflict in syria and how to move assad from power. and there's no sign they had to reverse the support, and today, a senior lawmaker says the syria government is now incapable of functioning properly. just before the meeting with the russian foreign minister, secretary clinton insisted that the united states and russia share common goals in the region. >> trying hard to work hard with russia to stop the bloodshed in syria and begin a political transition to a post asad future. the pressure against the regime in and around damascus seems to be increasing. lou: at home, leon pa net fa issuing the -- panetta issuing the sharpest warning yet. >> the president of the united states made it clear there will be consequences. there will be consequences if the assad regime makes a terrible mistake by using chemical weapons on their own people. lou: neither the white house or pentagon elaborating on what the cons -- consequences

whatever happens. secretary of state hillary clinton is in europe this week at a meeting in nato in brussels. her message is pretty clear. it wants north korea to stop this. if this missile works, bill, the range could be over 6,000 miles. that would put whatever it is launching in the payload in the range of los angeles. bill: greg palkot, watching that out of london. six minutes past. >> this is not north korea's first attempt at this. since 1998 the country has conducted four long-range missile tests. all of them failed out over the ocean. in that time u.s. sources estimate that north korea has developed over 800 medium-range missiles. a number of short-range missiles as well including antiship cruise missiles. bill: president obama will sit down with the nation's top ceos in washington today for new talks on how to avoid the fiscal cliff. the president plans to deliver remarks and answer questions during a meeting of a business roundtable. critics say the president will call on business leaders to press lawmakers about raising the debt ceiling. while that is happening we expect

has said that the rates don't have to return to clinton era levels. obama's nemesis as he often told us are millionaires and billionaires. so why not urge that the higher tax rates be applied only to those with incomes of $1 million and not the couples earning more than $250,000. now, i'm talking pure politics, not equity in this case. can they hang their hat on the fact, okay, you're against millionaires, we'll take back their cut for the millionaires? below that they have to get the deal. >> the problem with this is chuck schumer and other senate democrats tried to offer this to republicans last time. remember the last time we did this they rejected it. >> it works for them now. they can say all we want is the schumer deal. >> right now they don't have the leverage to get the schumer deal. they rejected the schumer deal. they don't have the leverage to get it. >> here we disagree. i think they may have a case. if the bogey man is the millionaire -- >> i think that's where it's going to end up. i think that's the flektability in the negotiations at the end is over to whom the h

. >>> and world leaders say farewell to hillary clinton with a ringing endorsement. you'll want to see this video. michael tomasky on whether hillary clinton will make a run for the white house. share your thoughts on facebook and on twitter. we're coming right back. >>> welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching tonight. republicans are doing a lot of maneuvering on the fiscal cliff. president obama and the democrats have put forward a plan relying mostly on raising more revenue from the wealthiest 2% of the country. republicans rely mostly on cuts affecting the middle class and the poor and republicans aren't specific about how they get $800 billion in revenue. for the conversation, let's turn to richard wolffe, msnbc political analyst and vice president and executive director of msnbc.com. and molly ball, political reporter for "the atlantic." the republican proposal includes ryan's voucher program for medicare. we're not even a month away from the election and they are throwing up on the wall everything that was rejected. why are they doing this? >> well, i can tell you why

clinton era levels. i don't like it. you don't like it. but it beats the budget terry oops you are going through right now to raise the same amount of dough. limiting the writeoffs and opening the can of worms is not worth it. less hassle and less revenue overall. if you raise the rates now and save the big foit for a -- the big fight for a conflict. and quit saying entitlements are off the table. curbing the growth is not the same as throwing granny off the cliff. get off your high horse and talking points and get this. republicans just gave you revenues. return the offer. give them a spending road map. if they are going to raise the top rate close to 5% i say you slice the growth in entitlement spending by 2% now and more later. both parties agree to keep growth in all government spending. all of it to no more than 2% a year half the rate at which it is spiraling out of control. super hero fix six, slowly rage the eligibility from 65 to 67 exempting those who are 58 or older now to allow for this adjustment to be slowly worked in. nancy pelosi i call you dracula. super hero fix n

married to the most popular democrat in the country. if their examiner for in '16 is hillary clinton, trying to win that is truly the super bowl. the republican party today is incapable of competing at that level. >> let's get to our panel. jonathan capehart is an msnbc contributor and an opinion writer for "the washington post." maria teresa kumar is an msnbc contributor and president of voter latino and steve kornacki is my colleague and a senior writer for the salon.com. john, the president's inauguration hasn't taken place yet and the political pun dut tri sauf and running with a premat touour nomination for je bush. if he's a brilliant candidate four years from now, why didn't he run this time? >> why didn't he run? >> yes. >> why didn't portman run? why didn't john kasich run? even in 2012 and as difficult as the situation was for president obama, those heavyweights within the republican party saw the writing on the wall, that it was going to be a very difficult race for even the best candidate, so they all held their fire for possibly 2016, so that's why you're seeing people t

have a clue. number two, as bill clinton and president obama point out, the math doesn't add up when you're trying to do this just on deductions. you need to do both deductions and loopholes and, of course, raise the rate. that's the only way the math works. and as far as hurt the economy, let me say for the 10,000th time, bill clinton raised tax rates on the top 2% in 1993 and we then proceeded to grow the economy by 23 million jobs. so, that's a bunch of bull, speaker boehner. >> let's go back to alex with the same question. i will argue that even though he hasn't specified the deductions or the loopholes he's going to close, the governor is right, there isn't enough at the top to close to make up for this advantage they have now but it seems he's accepting the moral argument. he's saying, the rich should get socked, too. that was an amazing admission for him to say to that. your thoughts. >> i agree with you. the fact that john boehner is out there saying we are asking the rich to pay more in taxes is not something they ever would have done in 2011. if you remember, math by detail

haven't heard the last of hillary clinton. >> -- i'll ask michael if this was the first campaign video for decision 2016. >> good to have you with us, folks. thanks for watching. john boehner is hanging on to their ideological hats. the latest attempt to change the conversation is a plan the american people rejected a month ago. the republican counteroffer to the white house plan relies on $800 billion. the plan does not raise any tax rates on the top income earners. it also contains $600 billion in health care cuts. who has been for that? nobody. there are $300 billion in cuts in mandatory government programs and another $300 billion in cuts to agency budgets and discretionary spending. the speaker's office sent a letter outlining the plan saying new revenue would be generated through pro-growth tax reform that closes special interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates. oh boy. it's the mitt romney plan again. the offer letter actually described the proposal as the bowles plan. republicans say the plan is based on the outline for the debt commission co-chair. the approach o

1993 the economy would suffer if then president bill clinton raised marginal tax rates. he actually played guess the quote with him. o'donnell turns to him and said who said this? >> that's awesome. >> stephanie: the tax increase will kill jobs and lead to rae session. it will increase the deficit. that's newt gingrich in 1993 on the clinton tax increase and those of us working on the other side of the tax increase have been waiting for your apology for 20 years for being completely wrong about that. ♪ let's hear it for the boy ♪ >> let's give the boy a hand ♪ >> how did newt react? >> stephanie: he was untenable to his own [ bleep ] >> i don't agree with you on that. >> 20 years ago, you said it. >> stephanie: the economy soared. no one lost a job. gingrich baloney. there's no way to penetrate his -- like denial. he said there was no recession. there was no recession. then he just -- that's a bunch of -- if you look at all of the indicators -- okay. >> stephanie: lawrence o'donnell was right. brian in dales you're on "the stephanie miller show." hi brian. >> caller: hey seduc

fall to the clinton era tax rates, i'm okay with that. i think that e we ought to have some wiggle room on the tax rates because i think the country wants us to compromise. so there's compromise space there, but make no mistake, we're not going to compromise away the upper end tax rates. that's on the table. it will stay on the table. that's what the american people are asking for. >> congressman, great to have you with us tonight on "the ed show." appreciate your time. remember to answer tonight's question. share your thoughts on twitter and on facebook. we always encourage you and want to know what you think. >>> coming up, mitch mcconnell filibusters his own bill in the senate. bernie sanders joins us to talk about what that means for the future. >>> and fiscal cliff talks. stay with us. you're watching "the ed show" on >>> unemployment hits a four had-year low, but republican obstruction is keeping the country from creates more jobs. we'll bring you the latest numbers and i'll ask david cay johnston why now is the time to focus on job creation. >>> and the supreme court will he

, apparently she's got a stomach virus. and it's forcing secretary clinton to delay her overseas trip that is supposed to sfoe focus on giving more support to the syrian opposition. we are told she's likely to announce the administration's going to recognize the opposition's new leadership council as the sole legitimate representative of the syrian people. michael, how important is that? >> it's important to support the opposition. i think, though, at this point, chris, it may be too little too late. trying to influence these vents on the ground in syria while we've been hanging back for so long will be tremendously difficult. i think we're left now in a sense to play catchup as events have really outpaced our ability to do much about them. >> washington institute managing director michael sing, always good to see you, michael. thank you. >> thank you, chris. >>> meantime, newark's mayor cory booker says he's not only thinking about running for governor. he's thinking about running for u.s. senate. and he said yesterday he'll make his decision on his next move within the next two weeks. >>> m

former president bill clinton. they were plaintiffs in the 2008 lawsuit that claimed california's ban on same-sex marriage violated the state's constitution. >> love knows no difference. and so when a human loves another human being they should have that right and that freedom to marry. >> they have been together for 25 years. more coverage of the decision, including an interview with gavin newsom, go to www.ktvu.com. >>> new at 10:00 p.m., a new way to gauge the economy during the holidays. ktvu's maureen naylor is live where the company christmas party moved out of the lunch room. >> reporter: tonight several venues tell us the holiday party is making a come back. >> reporter: bartenders uncorked the wine where a start up hosted a christmas party for employees. >> everybody is hands on. nice to be able to dress up and get yourself in a good mood. >> mood reflected in the party planning business. 83% of companies plan to host a holiday party this year. up from 68% last year. still below 2007 when 90% was hosting. >> we saw a come back. 2011 was better. this year we are 30% above